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Comparing gender roles in a streetcar named desire to todays gender roles
Essay about acharacter of stanley in streetcar named desire
Stanley kowalski and what he symbolizes in a streetcar
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At the time, society’s norms led Stanley to believe that ‘“Every Man is a King!”’ and that he was the king over his own household (Williams, Scene 8 page 131). This ideal influenced Stanley to be power hungry and abusive, which negatively affected his relationship with his wife Stella. However, Stanley never gave up on Stella when she ran away because he was determined to be a good husband (Williams, Scene 3 page 65).
Keywords that are most important to the documentary are, War on Drugs, incarceration, drug involvement/abuse, and racism. All of these words are loosely or heavily connected to each other. The words drug involvement/abuse highlight the purpose of the film, and the reasons for the War on Drugs and numerous laws created to fight drug abuse that cause death and destroy abiding citizens of communities. Furthermore, the War on Drugs simply labels the struggle against drug use and the governmental involvement to enforce anti-drug laws. The word incarceration and racism also link together to explain how as a result of the War on Drugs, the U.S. is one of the top countries with the highest imprisonment rate and more African-Americans or low-class minorities are convicted of drug crimes than any other ethnicity or social class.
Stanley is a blunt, practical, and animalistic man who has no patience for subtleties and refinement. His animalistic character shows the moment he meets Blanche, when he, moving with “animalistic joy” (24), “sizes” Blanche up with “sexual classifications” and “crude image” in his mind (25). Under his stare, Blanche draws “involuntarily back” (25), a movement that foreshadows their later conflict and her subsequent demise. His practical and straightforward side shows when he interrogates Blanche about the sale of Belle Reve to make sure that his wife is not swindled. His straightforward, practical nature makes him “boom” out of impatience (46) and demands Blanche to cut straight to the point when she tries to talk in an indirect, subtle manner as befit a Southern gentlewoman.
One major similarity between Blanche and Stanley is that they both like to manipulate or control other people, to make themselves feel better. Even though there are different ways Stanley and Blanche take control of other people they still do it in a familiar matter. For example, Blanche takes power and influence over people by lying to others and herself, to make them believe in something that actually never happened, with fantacy, therefore makes Blanche feel greater, than she actually may be. To go deeper in depth, to prove that Blanche is manipulative she also says. ¨I don 't tell the truth.
When Stella’s sister Blanche visits she picks up on his character quickly comparing him to caveman with animal like behavior. Threaten by Blanche’s influence on Stella, Stanley acts out by breaking glasses and even striking Stella even though she is pregnant. At the beginning Stanley tosses Stella, a
The only way that their relationship was able to withstand his abuse was through their sexual life, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark… unimportant” (Williams 70). Stellas’ love for stanley is immense, since she has been with him for so long she is content with how things are ran in their household. Stanley is the provider and she is simply the housewife, although she has many reasons to leave him she can not. With a newborn arriving, Stella has taken into consideration how her life would be if he was not in the picture. Her outlook on the love that they share is genuine and she has a
She needs Stanley for her own sexual needs and because she is having his baby. In scene one Stella describes to Blanche what she feels: STELLA [half to herself]. I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night… BLANCHE. Why, Stella! STELLA.
She brings this sense of superiority to Stella who unintentionally tries to distinguish her background from Stanley as well. Stanley recognizes the fact that Blanche looks down on him forcing him to assert his masculinity over her. Stanley’s dominance over the household and Stella is being questioned upon Blanche’s
In Blanche and Stanley’s initial interactions, there was an air of sexual tension. This tension dissipates completely as the play progresses, and their relationship turns into a resentful and hateful one. Throughout the play, Stanley has several violent outbursts towards Stella that worry Blanche. This allows Stanley to assert dominance over both women. At the end of the play, Stanley releases his pent up anger and frustration toward Blanche through a sexual attack.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, there is an ongoing power struggle between Stanley and Blanche, which propels the narrative. Stanley has the power of masculine physicality and mentality whereas Blanche only has the power of her background, of which she feigns to be her class. As the battle between the two is predominantly over Stella, we begin to witness in scene 2, where Stanley openly accuses Blanche of hiding “legal papers connected with the plantation”. His aggressive nature, towards her, motivates the idea of his resentment towards her, as
Stanley is a character who take certain responsibilities that eventually positions him as a dominant figure within his household. He provides for his family by working at a factory, and, when he “brings home the meat” at the beginning of the play Tennessee Williams references an animalistic approach similar to that of the cavemen who has the responsibility for hunting food to provide for his family. In various occasions throughout the play, he is seen to take a stand against any request that is unwillingly given to him, specially during times when he is upset such as arguing with Blanche when Stella requests him to come to the porch or during one of the poker games in which he seemed to be losing and blames the ladies for their loud conversation. Immediately afterwards the ladies start to play music which aggravates him even more and leads to Stanley throwing the radio out through the window thus breaking it.
In other words, Stella is very aware that her sexual relationship with Stanley can help her sort out any problems between them. Also, shortly before Stanley rapes Blanche, Williams says in the stage directions that there were “inhuman voices like cries in the jungle” (399; sc. 10). Blanche, which means white wood, is out of her element in this jungle of Stanley’s and it is she, who once called Stanley “bestial” (322; sc. 4) and “sub-human” (323; sc. 4), who has now found herself being stalked and charged like prey being hunted by an animal. With his sister-in-law present, Stanley has been unable to fulfill his sexual desires and so he releases them out on Blanche.
It also highlights Stella’s submissive nature, and how she conforms to the sexist societal expectations of a helpless and fragile woman. Although the surrounding male characters disregard Stanley’s abuse, the audience is repulsed by it and identifies it as morally wrong. This shows how Williams is criticising the acceptance of this abusive behaviour in society, using Stella’s dilemma as a victim to plea for a change. Stanley is even abusive when displaying his
He had slaps her in her face, when Stanley is in front of his friends he get out of hand. He asks different in front of his wife Stella. In the real world, when men hang out with their friends, they feel like they are the boss, so they start to show out to proof that they are man enough to put women in there place. Knowing that when they are around their wife’s they act so different because if their friends see how men act, they would think that he is a coward. When Stanley is with Stella, he is sober and he is sweet and caring to her.
Stanley's rudeness is directed towards Blanche which he has had something against from the first time they met, he does not trust her nor does he want to which is why he is constantly rude to her and always trying to bring her down. Throughout the play there is an obvious tension between the two, Stanley feels that Blanche is getting in the way of his relationship with Stella which frustrates him tremendously. He decided to talk with a friend of his named Shaw who knew all about Blanche's past, and told him everything that he wanted to know. With the upper hand over Blanche, Stanley saw the perfect opportunity to finally get her out of his house and unfortunately it would all happen on Blanche's birthday. Stanley told Stella all about Blanche who was in shock and found it hard to believe that her sister could be so different than what she thought.
